Prof Garth Abraham

Garth was appointed President and CEO of St Augustine College of South Africa in August 2015. As President, Garth has overall responsibility for: the academic programme, financial management and fundraising, external liaison and marketing, and human resources.

Garth is a qualified attorney / solicitor of the High Court of South Africa; for seven years, he practised law (specialising in general commercial and labour litigation) with a large Johannesburg Law Firm.

He has extensive academic teaching and administrative experience. Apart from his current position (in which he continues to lecture), he has lectured history for two years (1987 to 1988), and, between 1997 and 2015, he was an academic in the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand; he is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at that institution.

For ten years (2003 to 2013), Garth was in the employ of the Pretoria Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Amongst other things, he was responsible for developing relations between the ICRC and universities in the region; on an ad hoc basis, he acted as academic consultant for the ICRC to Anglophone delegations in Africa. He was also responsible for relations between the ICRC and the multilateral organisations based in Southern Africa (including the Southern African Development Community, the Pan African Parliament and NEPAD).

Garth has travelled extensively in Africa, and has personal knowledge of 16 countries on the continent; some countries he has visited regularly and extensively.

He has published widely. Apart from numerous articles dealing, inter alia, with various aspects of Public International Law, he has published a book on church / state relations in South Africa (The Catholic Church and Apartheid, 1948 – 1958), and has contributed chapters to a number of books. Garth’s areas of academic interest are Public International Law, Jurisprudence, Legal History and Catholic Social Teaching. His expertise in Public International Law and International Humanitarian Law is particularly recognised; he has acted as external examiner in the subject for four other South African universities and is regularly invited to deliver guest lectures on aspects of Public International Law and / or International Humanitarian Law in South Africa and beyond.

He is the founding (and, until 2013, was the principal) editor of the African Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law, and is a member of the editorial board of a number of other journals, including The St Augustine Papers (St Augustine’s own in-house journal), and the South African Yearbook on International Law.

Garth is regularly invited to participate as a juror in local, continental and international student competitions. He is the only African member of the 22 person international coordinating committee of the Jean Pictet Competition (the most prestigious international competition in International Humanitarian Law for university students).

Garth is married to Caroline de PELET ABRAHAM; they have three children: Charles, Alexander and Charlotte.

‘Some Thoughts on Islam, Christianity and the September 11 Bombings’
in Garth Abraham et alA New World Order? The Implications of 11 September 2001 (pp 1 – 8)
Johannesburg: SAIIA & Lancaster: Centre for Defence and International
Security Studies (2002)

‘Bombing for humanity: The American response to the 11 September attacks and the plea of self-defence’ (co-authored with Kevin Hopkins)
(2002) 119:4 South African Law Journal (pp 783 – 801)
Lansdowne: JutaLaw (2002)

‘“[I]n the path of the good Emperor Justinian”: Charles V and the impact of his legacy on the development of the South African common law.’
(2001) 118:3 South African Law Journal (pp532 ‑ 555)
Lansdowne: JutaLaw (2001)